Gender and biscotti weren’t two things Emmett thought about together frequently. He thought about them both separately with decent regularity, the former because of Holland the latter because he was hungry a lot, but they didn’t usually combine. Nevertheless, Emmett listened thoughtfully to Holland’s explanation. His instinctive dislike of Maverick did not outweigh the urge to be understanding of identities and orientations, so he thought it was important to pay attention. There were better, different reasons to dislike Maverick than his gender expression. Like the fact that he was a threat to Emmett’s closest friendship and overall place in the friendgroup.

While he paused to think about gender, biscotti, and the social hierarchy, Emmett felt a bump against his shoulder. “I missed you. Try not to get grounded for the whole summer this year.” The fifth year grinned sheepishly. Getting to see his friends a whole lot less than normal - and only at all because his sister was a more rational human being who would let him stay with her and have his friends over at her apartment - had definitely sucked, but by the same token, it did feel kinda nice to have been missed. “With Lucien and Justin both gone there’s no one you’d really want to punch left, right?”

Emmett looked briefly over at the Cetus bonfire. The new kid was now engaged in some sort of interaction with Russell. Two for one. “Nope,” he said, returning his focus to Holland and doing his best to play off his glance away as a joke. He did a better job not to glance at the Aquila fire, where sat another person he theoretically would want to punch (although never could, because he wasn’t a complete idiot and knew he would be thoroughly destroyed if any effort were ever made). “I’ll behave myself this year. At least as much as Marissa and Rose will let me. Have you gotten word on what the first non-sanctioned party’s going to be yet? I bet they were planning a lot over the summer.”

Having finished their cupcake, Holland accepted a cup of rooibos tea and a chocolate-almond biscotti from a house elf. At some point tonight they would probably want to eat something that had some... more